Callicoon Madeline is a first generation Chinook from the UKC Cross-Breeding Program. The Cross-Breeding program is designed to bring genetic diversity into the Chinook line which became bottle-necked when the line nearly went extinct. A non-Chinook Dog-0 is bred to a full-breed Chinook. A dog from that breeding is bred back to another full-breed Chinook. This is repeated for 4 generations. The pups from the 4th generation, after passing several qualification specifications, are eligible to be registered as full-breed Chinooks. Callicoon Madeline’s Dog-0 was a Shepherd/Husky named Sweetey.–More Info–

December 22nd, 2011 — Birthday

Arya was born at Callicoon Chinooks Kennel on Winter Solstice 2011. Her litter name was Aske. Each of her litter-mates was named for a god or goddess of the season. She, like her parents and paternal grandmother are pure-breed Chinooks but they have more genetic diversity and hopefully a more healthy genetic code due to the UKC Cross-Breed Program.

Arya began opening her eyes at the end of the first week but by the end of the 2nd week all the puppies had open eyes. The puppies were taken outside to take pictures to protect their eyes from the flash.

Callicoon Arya & Callicoon Rhiannon are the girls of the litter and as you can see very similar. It looks like Callicoon Ull is going to take after his father Bashaba Murphy. And, I think the other male, Aquilo, looks like a fair-haired bear whom I believe is going to have his maternal grand-mother’s coloring

Puppies got to “enjoy” the snow this week. In some of the pictures they look like they are arching their backs trying to keep their bellies off the ground. Bet it’s easier living in the cold north when your legs are longer.

Aquilo actually jumps into 1st place in the weight charts this week. Pretty good considering he was the smallest pup.

Chow time. Can you imagine if there were 8 to 10 puppies instead of just 4. They are getting really big. They are eating “real” food now so nursing is becoming more of a treat than a necessity....although they might disagree with that assessment.

Callicoon Rhiannon is leading the pack...well, most of the pack. I suspect that is Ull taking off on his own trail. They seem much more confident this week in the snow and quite a bit further off the ground.

I am really grateful to Maria at Callicoon Chinooks for these photos. It seems like the weeks are crawling by.

Karen at Bashaba Chinooks took a video when she was up visiting over the weekend.

January 28th, 2012 — 5 Weeks Old

Callicoon Arya & Callicoon Rhiannon wouldn’t cooperate by posing so I melded these two photos together for comparison of their similarity

Ull – 8lbs, 7 oz

Rhiannon – 7 lbs, 6 oz

Arya – 7 lbs, 0 oz

Aquilo – 8 lbs, 7 oz

February 5th, 2012 — Six Weeks Old

They actually run fast enough to get their ears flapping! Wow, this is quite a change from the puppy piles they were just a month ago.

Looks like they are really enjoying being out in the sun and free to roam about. There was lots of wrestling, rock climbing, and chasing going on.

Great pose between the trees. Arya has a lot of different colors in her coat. I think she’s going to take after her paternal grand-mother’s coloring...at least in the mask. Looks like there is a lot of reddish color on her head between her ears and I’ve read that can be an indication of future coloring. Suits me fine. I’m kinda partial to red-heads.

I’m not sure who is winning in this match. Callicoon Rhiannon is on the bottom but she seems to be in position to gnaw down on Callicoon Arya’s ear.

Looks like Arya is warming up her vocal cords. I’ve heard rumors that the puppies can be a tad loud– especially at 2am in the morning. Not looking forward to the first couple of nights when she comes home and gets to spend the night, by herself, in the crate. I was never very good at ignoring my own babies when they cried at night.

February 12th, 2012 - Seven Weeks Old

Six days and barring bad weather we will be holding Arya. They had their shots this weekend and vet check-up.